2013: The End of Days or a New Beginning?
Envisioning the World After the Events of 2012
by Marie D. Jones

I was excited about reviewing this 286 page book because I have heard so much about 2012 and all the things leading up to it, that i was starting to get really confused. God guided me to the right book to dispel the fog in my mind. The format was easy to follow and the progression was not hard to get. Then another thing that helped me with my 2012 issue was the frankness and candid humor of the author, she was able to shoot straight from the hip and help me to understand from different sources what meant what so I could figure things out for myself.

The most wonderful thing about this inspirational read were the messages of hope and the knowledge of what can be done now, not just to sit on our fannies, but start following simple daily changes that can make a big difference to all of us. I have learned that scared people have a tendency to make huge mistakes, and I am glad this precious guide was here when I needed it. There were helpful graphs and pictures, and eye-opening glimpses into many views. I would recommend this much needed teacher to anyone who has any concerns about 2012 and beyond. Thanks Marie, It makes a world of sense.

Love & Light,

Riki Frahmann ( )

Jones sets out to explore what the meaning behind the end of the Mayan calendar could be in this very mixed book. She does a poor job of explaining the calendar (in my view) in the first chapter but then goes on to explain that scholars disagree about the end date, is it another date in 2012 or is it not even 2012 at all? However she goes with the consensus and uses December 21st 2012 as the possible date when “things happen” she then speculates on what those “things” could be. She does this by firstly talking about “Mayan teachings of time acceleration and global awakening on a consciousness level” using some new agey woolly thinking books as “research” (when someone says that emotions have an energy level and that someone who has reached the energy level of love can offset the negative energy of x thousand people who have only reached the energy level of grief and this is held up as “research” you know your on shaky ground). Happily though after this nonsense she examines the potential apocalypses – first those that would destroy us – sunspots, supervolcanoes, asteroids etc etc and those that could account for a paradigm shift (or “global awakening on a consciousness level” if you like) such as nanotechnology, quantum computing, AI singularities etc. The last part of the book is a series of essays by other authors (mostly of new age books) asked to speculate on what 2012 will mean. I must confess that I just skipped through the essays which mostly exhibited a certain style of wishful thinking.

Overall – if you ignore the “we’re going to all become spiritually mature and we’ll all see that just by being nice to each other we can fix all the worlds problems” stuff it’s a good summary of what could cause our potential doom or the next huge paradigm shift ( )

This may well be a good book, it just wasn't what I expected or was looking for. The cover said "Envisioning the world after ... 2012". I was halfway through the book and still hadn't gotten past the detailed histories of anyone who had ever predicted the end of the world. It was definitely written by a teacher who had done her research, so I'm sure it will satisfy a lot of people. Just not me (and not enough for me to finish it). ( )